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Developer is an exciting tool from Avaya that opens up huge opportunities for developers wanting to create
their own softphones.
Shipped free with the Avaya Contact Center Express CD, developers can use these controls to build CTI
applications without Agent or Explorer integration. Developer controls make it possible to build the foundation of a softphone with no coding required.
This toolkit of ActiveX Component Object Model objects has already proven its
reliability and versatility in the marketplace as the development tool
behind Avaya's highly successful CTI applications Agent, Explorer and Esprit.
Three-Tier Architecture
The Developer toolkit is a combination of controls that operate in concert, each offering a specific function. The controls are
layered and binded to the layer below to receive and transmit information. Each layer offers a series of methods,
events and properties that allow the user to interact with any layer.
PhoneX Layer
The PhoneX layer manages the
interface to the Telephony Server and provides link management, link
recovery, error recovery and primary method and event marshalling.
PhoneX also provides a class-based interface that acts as a repository
for call-based information as well as limited, application-defined data.
PhoneX provides a call-based model that combines the connection-based
model of CentreVu CT. PhoneX provides the widest range of methods,
events and properties that cover virtually all the CentreVu CT API.
Middle Layer
The component layer acts as a
filter to attached higher-level controls. Properties of the controls in
the component layer determine the conditions under which it propagates
received events up the chain. The controls also offer a programming
interface that removes the complexities of link management. Multiple
component layer controls can bind to the same PhoneX in the same
application.
The methods, events
and properties offered by the controls in this layer are a subset of the
underlying PhoneX. This subset is dependent on the nature of the
control. For example, Station Control offers methods and events specific to a
station (physical telephone). Where possible, methods and events have
been simplified to allow a clear and simple level of integration.
Graphical User Interface (GUI) Layer
Developer's GUI-layer controls show the user the status of a particular
device, call, split, routing point, etc, and interpret user keystrokes
or mouse clicks for functioning by the middle layer.
Some GUI controls also
provide a programming interface (methods and events) that offers the
simplest level of interaction.
Supported Development Environments
Developer COM objects can be used in the Microsoft VBA environment or in any
development tool that offers COM support such as Visual Basic, Visual
C++ and Visual InterDev. The controls are simply embedded in an application form by dragging and dropping the required
icon from the toolbox.
The icons you use depend on the specific requirements of the application.
For example, to develop desktop softphone functionality, you need PhoneX
for link management and Station Control to control an individual
extension. Agent Control can be added to control agent functionality at
the specified extension, while Line Key Group will control individual
calls.
If
you want to create a host-based routing application, you would use
PhoneX for link management and Routing Control for managing the
Vector Directory Number (VDN) routing point. Routing Control manages the
routing point and passes the information to the application, which makes
specific routing decisions based on the calling line number (CLI/ANI),
the dialed number (DNIS), collected digits or the received ISDN
user-to-user information (UUI).
Configuration Client control allows you to control where the application sources its
configuration data (local machine, network or Configuration
Server), while the Language control allows you to
display your application strings in the language of your choice. |
